What about Sudan top negotiator in Darfur talks
By Alfred Taban, The Khartoym Monitor
Mar 19, 2006 — The government’s refusal to sack Dr Majdhub al-Khalifah as the chief government negotiator in the Darfur peace talks is something I find very difficult to understand.
Dr Khalifah is an Islamic fundamentalist hard-liner, who has ruffled feathers in almost all sectors of the Sudanese nation. As governor of Khartoum State he had angered women less than six years ago when he tried to push them to the kitchen by preventing them from getting employed in restaurants, fuel stations and so forth. He bewildered Christians when he tried to turn their graveyard in Al-Sahafah into a vegetable market.
Now as the government’s man in Darfur, he is raising dust at exactly the wrong time. At a time when international attention is now focused on Abuja and three of the top rebel leaders, Abdelwahid al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), Mani Arkoi Minawi, also of the SLM and Dr Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are all in Abuja for the first time ever, Khalifah is talking of foreign interference.
Khalifah also rudely told the people of Darfur to forget the position of vice-president. If Khalifah is saying this as a bargaining tactic, then he must understand that it is an affront to all the marginalized people in this country.
Most Sudanese now understand that unless there is a radical restructuring of power in which the rural majority takes a major share of power, proportionate to its number, sustainable peace in Sudan cannot be achieved. Khalifah says the people of Darfur should wait for elections if they want the vice-presidency.
Did Khalifah’s mentor, President Al-Bashir, wait for elections in June 1989 when he made himself head of state? I thought he just seized power by the gun and installed himself as president. The people of Darfur are entitled to the presidency itself, but they have been compromising enough to demand only the vice-presidency.
Do six million people, out of the population of Sudan of about 34 million people, not deserve the vice-presidency? There are currently three vice-presidents, one from the south and two from the northern region. What about Darfuris in the west and the easterners, do they not deserve these posts?
By a radical restructuring of power this is what we mean. The president is from the northern region, the first vice-president is from the south, thus there must be a vice-president from Darfur to represent the west, another from the east and the third from Al-Jazirah to represent the centre.
All parts of Sudan should be given real roles to play so that they feel that they are actually part of the country. This feeling sustains whatever peace agreement is reached.
Khalifah does not appear to understand that, hence he should be fired and replaced by a person who does.